Participle

Over the last 10 years, the people at Participle have been designing and developing large-scale projects that demonstrate the next generation of public services. 

Participle was started by Hilary Cottam, Charles Leadbeater and Hugo Manassei to build on this work and take it to scale.

Participle launched in September 2007. In the first 12 months, we focused on the challenges and opportunities of an Ageing population, developing a social enterprise that helps its older members stay on top of household chores, learn new things, find trusted trades-people and use and develop their skills. In May 2009, this enterprise, called Southwark Circle, opened for business. Southwark Circle typifies our work: it is open to everyone, supports richer lives and expands the resources available, changing the economics of service delivery.

Additional work with the Ageing population included the development of a soon to launch London based service, called Get-Together, which addresses the severe issue of social isolation and loneliness amongst the older population. Throughout 2009, Participle worked in the areas of ‘Families in Chronic Crisis’ and Youth, with both areas launching new enterprises in 2010. For details of these projects, please visit Our Projects.

Our partners have included the London Borough of Southwark, Swindon Borough Council, the City of Westminster, Brighton and Hove City Council, Croydon Council, the Department for Work and Pensions, the Cabinet Office, the RSA, The Aldridge Foundation, Pfizer and Sky, not to mention the numerous inspirational communities and individuals who have participated in and shaped our research and prototyping thus far.

Pre September 2007

Early successes by the core team include: working with pupils and staff to transform a ‘failing’ school into one of the country’s top 20 most improved schools as a national model for Building Schools for the Future; a prototype prison which would reduce re-offending, taken on as a model by the United Nations and a preventative, proactive health service which harnesses the power of community links in small social groups. 

Our work and our team have grown in part through the experience we gained in setting up two former enterprises School Works Ltd and the Do Tank Ltd and through work at the Design Council as the RED Unit and at NESTA.

Between 1997 and 2007, the core team has raised over £20 million.  We learnt a lot and we developed our unique approach, through continual trial and error.  We also realised that we could only bring about real change if we combined our innovation methods with more rigorous business tools, and worked in deeper partnerships with both public, private and voluntary sectors.  We wanted to go beyond improving the current services on offer, initiating deeper change and creating new institutions and enterprises.

No Small Thanks to…

With the support of many like-minded people, very early angel funding from NESTA and ongoing advice and support from Linklaters, Participle continues to flourish.